Aloha

We booked our summer holiday yesterday. TWO weeks in Hawaii, woooooooooo, hoooooooooo! OH really needs it. I am sooooo excited, I feel like a big kid. OH has always said that he would like to take us all there. The only places that I really fancy going to is Hawaii and New Zealand. Roll on August =-)

On another happy note we have a viewing today with a couple who viewed our house on Thursday evening. So we are keeping everything crossed. They are also viewing a couple of others for the second time. However our estate agent said that he did prefer our house out of the three that they are viewing. Lets hope they feel the same.......

Let It Snow.....

Woke this morning to five inches of snow!!! What is going on? So the kids and I were outside this morning at 7.30am playing in it. When the weather people say that we are going to have snow it usually means a handful of flakes that do not settle. We only ever see this sort of snow when we go skiing. The dog loves it but our eldest cat Bella was not at all impressed. However Azlan seemed to enjoy himself pouncing on the snow and charging through it.

Our open house did not go very well. We had ONE couple turn up. I am not sure if the weather helped, it was chucking it down with rain. I spent the whole day cleaning, dusting etc. Grrrrrrrrr! I even got rid of the kids and animals. However we have had a couple of viewings since then. We are still keeping everything crossed for a buyer.

We had a lovely easter. Olivia more then us as my sister took her to Disneyland Paris with her cousin by eurostar. The rest of us were very jealous. I cannot believe how many rides they went on. They packed so much in. The kids as always got brought too many chocolate eggs. We still have a pile of them. I might melt them down and make some cornflake cakes.

2nd Time Lucky (Fingers Crossed!)

Dropped that kids off at school this morning, came home and spent two hours sorting the house for the estate agents visit!! They looked around the house and seemed quite impressed. They have the same house as ours on there books but on for 10k more. The people who own the other house are in no rush to move so happily over price it. There are some other smaller properties for sale in our estate that will be on for the same price as ours. I am sure we will ruffle a few feathers by pricing ours so competitively. I feel we are just being realistic with the price. I have also decided to do an open day with our house. Never tried that before, what is the worse thing that can happen? The house will not sell that day. At least we would have tried. They took pics and details, just waiting now to check them. OH has just called me with his holiday dates in August, so fingers crossed we hope to be viewing houses that week in Italy….

Once that estate agents left Luca and I had lunch. He then had a nap while I ironed my way through our mountain of clean clothes. I then had to collect the kids from school followed by a trip to the bank and supermarket. Then home and cook the kids dinner. I am pooped.

I rode Vasco three times last week. Bliss. He is lovely to ride and esp comfy with my instructors dressage saddle. Will try and take more pics soon.

Slimming World

I joined Slimming World early August 2006 (the pic attached was taken in late August 2006. It is a shame that you cannot see the tops of my arms in the picture) because I had had enough of my weight and none of my larger clothes fitting. I managed to loose 1.5 stone in 11 months which I was very pleased with. However I then went of the rails and have put a stone back on since then!!!! I stopped going in late August last year but have re-joined about three weeks ago because I was finding that clothes that fitted before were now not. I thought I was being very good the first week and was most disappointed that I had only lost 1.5 pounds, so spent the following week eating what I liked (I know it is my own fault) and I missed last weeks meeting (slap wrists!). I am fed up of looking at my overweight self so I have to pull my finger out and do something about it. I went to Tesco earlier and brought myself the Slimming World magazine for some inspiration. They always do fab recipes and it is always lovely to read other people success stories. I am drawing a line in the sand today and am not going to go back to my bad old ways!!

He Has Arrived

Finally Vasco has arrived. He was collected late on Sunday night, spent the night in Dover (thankfully not in the truck) and arrived at the yard at one yesterday afternoon. The kids and I went to see him at five yesterday evening. He was a little anxious, which is to be expected. My instructor took him into the inside school and let him loose. It was lovely watching him kicking up his heels and rolling around in the sand. A couple of carrots later, we went home. This morning after the school run I collected MIL who looked after Luca so that I could go to the yard. I arrived to find a much more calmer horse. I spent an hour learning what brush to use etc. I have so much to learn, it feels daunting at times. I am having to use all of my will power not to keep on popping over to see him. He is such a gentleman. So willing to give you his feet so that you can pick them out and when he takes food from your hand he is so gentle. I am positively beaming. I am having a sit on him on Friday night but will not start having proper lesson for another couple of weeks. We both need to build up our fitness!! It has been three months since I have been in the saddle and I think I might also be using a dressage saddle!!

I want to cry....

Just spent all morning cleaning and tidying the house in preparation for the estate agent. He spent two minutes whizzing round the house (he has already seen the particulars on-line from the previous time we tried to sell it!). He has valued it 35k lower them we want for it. I want to cry, well have done a little =-( I think we may have two options, stay here another two years or get a mortgage in Italy. Neither are particularly suitable. We just need to decide now how badly we want to move. Will discuss more tonight with OH. It has really p****d on my fire. Just want to go to bed and hide under duvet but not sure if the kids will let me, besides have to take DD2 riding in 25 mins. TTFN
PS Vasco is still not here (that is enough to make me want to scream!) however have been promised that he will be here on Saturday when I will be visiting my big sister in Devon. I am not holding my breath.

The Story So Far

I cannot believe that it has been a month since I last posted anything. Anyway I have been busy. I ordered a skip so that we could have a major clear out as we do not want to be moving with loads of rubbish and wanted to de-clutter the house ready for viewers. OH said that we should have words with the neighbours and see if they wanted to add anything to the skip. I suggested that we waited first to see if we managed to fill it ourselves. Good job we did as we filled it to the top!!

My horse is still not here =-( The previous yard that my instructor had lined up fell through because the owner got greedy. Sounds like she had over stretched her finances and was trying to make up the short fall by increasing the deposit on the yard. It has worked out for the best because my instructor has managed to find another yard that is closer and loads better. It also has an indoor school which is a bonus. Vasco was meant to arrive last night but unfortunately the previous horses that were collected before him were stallions and behaving like complete arses. So the poor driver was having to stop all the time and sort the horses. Prob best that he did not travel with them as it would have prob stressed him out and they could have hurt him. He is now due to arrive next Wed. Am keeping everything crossed. MIL was due to have the children for the day early next week and I was going to spend the day at the yard. She is still going to have the children but i have decided to decorate the kitchen instead (joy!).

The estate agent is due to value the house on Thursday which gives me plenty of time to sort the house out. Hopefully it will be on the market early next week. The only thing that I hate about selling houses is the strangers tramping around you home looking in cupboards. Thankfully I feel much better prepared this time.

I brought OH an antique map of Northern Italy that I have hung above my desk. Its lovely to look up at it and dream that one day we will be living there.

OH decided that he wanted to buy a running machine. It arrived all boxed up on Wednesday and is still waiting to be unpacked!! I am as keen as he is to use it. I am hoping that it will be the key to me losing weight. I plan to use it while monster chops is having his nap in the day. OH plans to use it after work. I am tempted to keep tabs on who uses it the most. I would like to think that it will be me.

Monster chops has just woken up so I will have to sign off. I did try to add a pic to this post but the b****y thing is playing up and is not letting me do it. I do like to add a pic because it always makes it more interesting. TTFN